Christianity and the responsibilities of a nation’s rulers “under God” that Christianity imposed are now a distant memory to those in government.

It’s not just Obama, although he is a convenient tool. It’s the leaders of both parties in Washington, D.C., many top federal judges and, yes, our military officers. All of them took an oath before God to defend the Constitution. All of them violate it daily in their government duties.

Many “conservatives” are clueless. Which camp do you inhabit? Clueless, or clued-in? Here’s a quick test: Edward Snowden took two oaths during his short secret-agent career. The first was to protect the Constitution from its enemies (and they are legion). The second was not to disclose secret material he used in his daily work.

So here is the test, fellow conservatives: When the two oaths conflict, which takes priority?

If you answered “upholding the Constitution,” you are a conservative or a libertarian. You believe in the rule of law over the cult of personality. And you believe that the Constitution trumps all other laws. If you answered anything else, you will be right at home in Washington, D.C., inventing ever more clever ways to divert increasing amounts of tax money, taken by force from decent Americans, into your own pockets. Welcome to the Party, Comrade.

While you are enjoying your barbecue this Fourth, say “hi” to the National Security Agency, silently monitoring your telephone calls to friends and family, recording the date, time and place from which you made the call, and the same for the person you called. Of course, they would never record the content. They now have a network of all your friends mapped out; in the event of unrest they can dispatch Homeland Security to detain you indefinitely as a terrorist threat.

Wave “hello” to the police car that drives by with the license plate camera digitally snapping and recording the plates parked in front of your house. Of course, Herr Citizen, we must know where you were and when, and with whom, and enter it into our growing database that tracks all our movements. But rest assured, the data will be retained, forever.

Knowing your habits of movement and your circle of friends can be extremely valuable for “the authorities.” The Jews in Nazi Germany, the Soviet citizens seeking escape from the workers’ paradise and all the ordinary peoples of the Communist bloc in Europe learned this the hard way: in concentration camps, prison, or in frozen railroad cattle cars parked in the Siberian winter. You should have been more careful about what you said, Comrade. We know everything. Now confess!

But don’t think about that, America! It’s your birthday. Our military officers would never order American soldiers to fire on American citizens to restore order in the midst of riots in our major cities. Or perhaps a rancher grazing his cattle too close to a stream on Forest Service land (it used to be our land, remember?). Our soldiers would never comply: They know their oaths to the Constitution trump today’s made up laws. Don’t they?

The police would never lie to you, detain you illegally or shoot your family pet to make a point.

The IRS would never allow itself to be used for the political advancement of an individual, political movement, or political party.

The National Security Agency and the CIA only spy on foreign terrorists.

The secret FISA court with its secret warrants, secret laws, secret orders and secret findings would never compromise your liberty for the convenience of the government.

Send drones over your backyard, peering into your bedroom or listening in on your spirited conversations this Fourth. Note who was present with facial recognition software and record it in a database. Check the GPS coordinates from the photos posted on Facebook. Record, record, record. Has nobody done anything wrong? Save it anyway. Tomorrow the law will change. Knock, knock, knock.

Republicans, Democrats and career bureaucrats all have your best interests in mind. They all want to make sure you get everything you are entitled to, with money they took away from someone else, or borrowed from your retirement. The downtrodden must be uplifted, because they vote for us. Your freedom is a small price to pay for our continued power, dear citizen.

Crony capitalism, gerrymandered congressional districts, blackmailed media and perpetual political re-election funds are only there to insure that the best and most qualified candidates are re-elected time after time, the better to serve you. You know, the people who at all costs will uphold their oath to a God they no longer believe exists, and protect a Constitution designed to tie their hands and insure your liberty.

Happy Fourth, America. Now take another nap. Don’t worry about anything. Soft tyranny will never turn into hard tyranny, like it has everywhere else throughout world history. Government is your friend. Until it’s not.

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